Monday, March 23, 2009

Jesus Had a Dick

"For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Child, so that everyone who believes in the Child may not perish, but have eternal life."

Yes, that is the well known John 3:16 line, one we see at every sporting event and heard every year if one is a church goer. And yes, that ponderously sanitized, gender neutral version is how it was read yesterday AM in my UCC church.

The Child in question is Jesus Christ. Or so I always thought. Jesus, as described in the Bible and throughout history has been described as a "he", "him", "son"... etc. I don't think Jesus had a gender identity issue, and if he did that is no big deal, who am I to question? Besides that, a Bible passage (Luke 2;21) indicates that Jesus, as were all good Jewish boys in the day, was circumcised. But damn it, those terms and rituals imply something: Jesus had a dick. Whether he used it or not... that is immaterial.

As an aside, I have no trouble with a gender neutral God. God, in whatever shape that concept holds for you, usually transcends human concepts. As Kurt Vonnegut's character Kilgore Trout uttered, God could be an intelligent gas from Pluto as far as he knew.

Yes, I know it is quite correct to say that Jesus was a child. But it seems the "only Child of God" was a male child with a penis, two testicles, maybe hair on his chest, a distinct lack of breasts and likely sang baritone in his choir.

The idea that Jesus as a male can not be a savior or relevance to women is just plain sexist garbage wrapped in PC feminism. Even the dour old John Calvin dispenses with this issue with a curt, "Why, even children know that women are included under the term 'men'!"

Many others have ranted about this, much more eloquently and solidly theological than I... so I will let me little rant rest. In my own mind and voice, Jesus was a guy. He had a dick. Get over it.

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